Victoria Cobb, President Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Action Alert: Help Maintain Pro-Life Medical Professionals Conscience Protections! See Our Latest General Assembly Blog Posts @ www.familyfoundationblog.com Sign Up for Twitter Updates @ www.twitter.com/TFFVA Join Us On Facebook @ www.facebook.com See Our Video Center On YouTube @ www.youtube.com/user/TheFamilyFoundation Dear xxxxxx, Last summer we alerted you to the public comment period offered by the Department of Health and Human Services, which sought feedback on its proposed new rules protecting the consciences of medical healthcare providers not to perform procedures or services that violated their religious faith. Thanks to thousands of grassroots, pro-life Virginians...

Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama has taken the next step to remove the new protections the Bush administration put in place to protect pro-life medical centers and staff who do not want to do abortions. The protections provided better enforcement for existing conscience laws for medical professionals. The Bush administration put the protections in place after learning that medical centers and staff were facing increasing pressure to be involved in abortions despite three federal laws prohibiting such discrimination. Obama officials had told media outlets that the president wanted to merely clarify the existing rules, but the administration published in...

President Obama intends to repeal a Bush administration rule that has become a flash point in the debate over a doctor's right not to perform abortions. The regulation, instituted in the last days of the Bush administration, strengthened job protections for doctors and nurses who refuse to provide a medial service because of moral qualms. A Health and Human Services official said Friday the administration will publish notice of its plans early next week, opening a 30-day comment period for advocates on both sides, medical groups and the public. But Republicans are already voicing strong opposition. "I will do nothing...

On Feb. 25, I wrote an article for Examiner.com titled “To obey or not to obey government". In other words, I asked the question whether Civil Disobedience would be proper under certain circumstances. In the article, I gave a few reasons that people, especially Christians might defy a government law, regulation or directive. In all of those cases, I noted that Acts 5:29 tells us that we should obey God’s law and not man’s law. Abortion was one of the things that I mentioned that would qualify to allow us to be justifiably civilly disobedient. Since that time, Obama has...

Last week, what the Washington Post characterized as a “terse posting on a federal Web site” set the stage for a debate on just how seriously our society takes freedom of conscience. The posting announced that the Obama administration was planning to rescind “job protections for health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable.” These explicit protections were issued in the last few months of the Bush administration. Under the current provisions, health care providers can lose federal funds if they don’t accommodate health-care workers “who refuse to participate in care they feel violates their . . ....

The underhanded Obama administration has quietly moved to rescind the “conscience clause” found in agreements between the federal government and Catholic hospitals. This “conscience clause” has always protected practitioners from being forced to commit abortions in violation of their consciences. Its removal means Catholic hospitals will be forced to choose between federal funds for committing abortions and closing down to maintain a clear conscience. Phonies with egg on their faces Nevertheless, phony “Catholic” judas goats like Douglas Kmiec are still beating their chests with pride at having delivered 52% of the Catholic vote to the abortion team last fall. In...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is also an OB/GYN, told CNSNews.com on Friday that many medical practitioners, including himself, will go to prison before agreeing to engage in medical practices they morally oppose, such as abortion. Earlier that same day, the Obama administration had announced it was “reviewing” a Bush administration regulation known as the “conscience clause.” That Health and Human Services regulation protects health-care workers at federally funded institutions from having to engage in practices that violate their moral or religious beliefs. These practices include performing or referring abortions, performing sterilizations, or giving or receiving training in these practices....

The so-called “freedom of conscience rule” promulgated by the Bush Administration in its last few months will be rescinded by the Obama Administration within the next month or two according to an unnamed official. The Bush rule permits medical personnel to decline to perform abortions if they believe that to do so would be unethical, immoral, or in violation of their religious beliefs. “As President Obama has said, the job of these doctors, nurses, etc. is to serve their patients, not to assert any moral misgivings and use that as a reason to refuse service,” the official asserted. “The argument...

Doctors are forecasting the closure of hospitals and clinics across America and a mass migration of physicians and their assistances to other careers should the Obama administration succeed in its attempt to overrule their rights of conscience. "Thousands of conscientious and compassionate physicians, nurses, hospitals and clinics currently serve poor women and those who live in medically underserved areas," said David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association today. "Many of these professionals and institutions are motivated and guided by longstanding Hippocratic ethics and biblical principles that preclude participation in abortion and other controversial procedures. Infringing on their right to...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the Bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said Friday. The Provider Refusal Rule was proposed by the Bush White House in August and enacted on January 20, the day President Barack Obama took office. It expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for "health-care professionals who don't want to perform abortions."

www.catholicnewsagency.com Obama administration may toss pro-life conscience protections President Barack Obama Related articles: Submission to Department of HealthReview of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology ActThe “Morning-After Pill”, Rape Victims and Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care ServicesAre chemical abortions safer than surgical abortions?Preparations for the anniversary Washington D.C., Feb 27, 2009 / 06:10 pm (CNA).- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to rescind regulations which made explicit the existing legal protections for medical workers who object to cooperating in abortions. The preparations have led one Republican congressman to charge President Obama’s administration with...

Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows health-care workers to deny abortion counseling or other family-planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials. The rollback of the "conscience rule" comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it last year in one of its final policy initiatives. The new administration's action seems certain to stoke ideological battles between supporters and opponents of abortion rights over the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and other medical workers to their patients.

Washington, DC -- The White House quietly announced on Friday that President Barack Obama is starting the process of overturning protections President Bush put in place to make sure medical staff and centers are not forced to do abortions. The move is the latest that will add to Obama's growing pro-abortion record. Existing federal laws already make it so doctors and hospitals are not required to perform abortions. Because those laws aren't always followed, the Bush administration added additional protections. Now, the Obama administration is Starting the process to remove them.

President Barack Obama wants to rescind a Bush administration rule that strengthened job protections for doctors and nurses who refuse for moral reasons to perform abortions. A U.S. Health and Human Services official said Friday the administration will publish notice of its intentions early next week, opening a 30-day comment period for medical groups and the public. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the notice has not been completed. The Bush administration instituted the rule in its last days, and it was quickly challenged in federal court by several states and medical organizations. As a candidate, President Barack...

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) – President Obama has begun quietly to begin the process of overturning regulations that protect doctors and hospitals from being forced to perform or refer abortions. The Chicago Tribune reports that President Obama is directing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to begin overturning the conscience rule that protects medical providers who are pro-life. This pullback comes only months after the Bush administration strengthened the rule by placing penalties on facilities that subject pro-life doctors, nurses, or other medical workers to discrimination over the issue of abortion. As with his rescinding of the Mexico City...

President Obama wants to rescind a Bush administration rule that strengthened job protections for doctors and nurses who refuse for moral reasons to perform abortions. A Health and Human Services official said Friday the administration will publish notice of its intentions early next week, opening a 30-day comment period for advocates, medical groups and the public. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the notice has not been completed. The Bush administration instituted the rule in its last days, and it was quickly challenged in federal court by several states and medical organizations. As a candidate, Obama criticized the...

The Virginian Pilot has a … shall we say “interesting” view of ethics. Let us first get rid of the canard that journalism has ethical standards to which it scrupulously adheres. That’s a punch line for a joke, not a serious point for discussion. In this editorial it demands that people who are opposed to abortion be required – by law – to violate their own ethical standards in order to keep a job. The editorial begins with the obligatory Bush bashing. …as Bush prepares to exit the White House, he's tossing a prize to anti-abortion activists and leaving the...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Bush administration has finalized the new rules that protect both medical professionals and medical staff who don’t want to be involved in abortions or abortion referrals. The Department of Health and Human Services released the final rule that will go into effect on January 20. The new regulations are intended to clarify and enforce existing federal laws that protect the choices of health care providers who have moral objections to abortion. The regulation clarifies and implements existing federal statutes enacted by Congress in 1973, 1996 and 2004.The federal laws, which protect the conscience of...

The "Conscience Rule" An issue of Morality/Hippocratic Oath? Or lawsuits? One thing can be said... all of us - on both sides of the aisles - live in the dark on most actions our govt is doing on our "behalf". So those with particular specialties, and an eye on relative legislation, are often very helpful in drawing attention to issues that arise we would otherwise miss. Such is the case when Larry Weisenthal, one of our left leaning FA commenters, requested an authored post on a new regulation to be implemented prior to Obama's inauguration, the "conscience rule".First off, what...

A federal regulation with a “right of conscience” provision allowing medical professionals to refuse to participate in treatments they oppose morally is set to be finalized by Bush administration officials this week. But it looks like the rule will be short-lived. The Wall Street Journal reports today that members of the Obama transition team are taking a hard look at that and other regulations that could have an effect on reproductive rights issues, with an eye on reversing them once the president-elect is in office. The rule set to go into effect this week would allow health workers to opt...